Sex differences in functional brain connectivity over the course of aging in a large cohort

The brain is a complex network that relies on the interaction between its various regions, known as the connectome. The human connectome undergoes complex changes with aging and shows differences in many functional network measures between men and women; however, the effects of aging and sex on the brain connectome are not well characterized. In this study, we assess functional connectivity changes in a large cohort of men and women between 45 and 79 years of age using conventional methods as well as a novel approach based on multilayer brain connectivity. Our findings provide a deeper insight into the sex differences that occur in functional connectivity over the course of aging. Moreover, they indicate that multilayer networks provide a natural way to integrate the information from positive and negative functional connections, providing important information on the effects of sex and age on network topology.